American Go E-Journal

The election of Chang Zhenming of China as President of the International Go Federation (IGF) highlighted the International Go Federation’s General Meeting (r) on Monday as the 31st edition of the IGF’s flagship event – the World Amateur Go Championship – formally launched in Hangzhou, China. “I will give my best effort to promote go to the whole world,” Chang promised, “Go is a benefit for everyone.” The other major news was that while there have been setbacks in the attempt to achieve recognition for go as an Olympic sport, mind sports are making significant progress. IGF Director Thomas Hsiang reported that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) includes mind sports as a category that has “no realistic chance of entering either the Summer or the Winter Olympics,” and so won’t be recognized. The good news is that SportAccord (formerly the General Association of International Sports Federation, or GAISF) is expanding its definition of sport to include mind sport and plans to sponsor a number of new events, including Mind Sport Games. Planning for a second World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) in August 2012 is now underway, with Manchester UK as the leading candidate to host. In even more exciting news, the International Federation of Poker has applied to become an IMSA and SA member, which has attracted interest from several major marketing firms, with which the IGF is now in discussions. Upcoming events either sponsored by the IGF or with major IGF involvement are the 21st International Pair Go Championships October 16-17 in Japan, the 16th Guangzhou Asian Games November 12-27 and the 32nd World Amateur Go Championship in Shimane, Japan.– Chris Garlock; photo by John Pinkerton. Click here for the complete report and more photos on Ranka Online.

Sixty players from 60 countries and regions. Eight rounds over four days. For 31 years, the World Amateur Go Championships (WAGC) have assembled a global gathering of top amateurs to compete, meet and spread the game of go around the world. This year’s WAGC is being held this week in Hangzou, China, organized by the China Qiyuan, the Chinese agency responsible for board and card games, under the supervision of the International Go Federation, and co-organized by the Hangzhou Branch of the China Qi-Yuan (Chinese Go Association). After arriving on Monday and participating in the IGF General Meeting and opening ceremonies on Tuesday, the tournament proper commences on Wednesday morning. This year, DPR Korea, playing in the WAGC for the first time since 2006, joins China and the Republic of Korea as top contenders for the title. China’s Chen Wang is just 17 years old but won the Chinese Evening News Cup. Taewon Jo of DPR Korea, a veteran at age 21, won the individual amateur event in the World Mind Sports Games in 2008. And Hongsuk Song, a year older at 22, has been doing well in the Republic of Korea, winning the international Korean Prime Minister’s Cup last October and more recently taking the amateur Kuksoo title and the Korean Sports Cup. Two more 17-year-olds who bear watching are Nai San Chan of Hong Kong, China, and Thomas Debarre of France, who finished third and eighth, respectively, in the World Amateur Go Championship last year. Also hoping to place in the top eight are newcomers Cheng-hsun Chen (age 11, at left) of Chinese Taipei and Yohei Sato (29) of Japan, but they will be vying with a group of twenty other players ranked 5 dan and above, including established stars such as Ondrej Silt (23) of Czechia.– Based on James Davies’ report on Ranka Online; photo (top right): panel in front of the WAGC playing site with signatures of the players (photo by Ivan Vigano); photo of Cheng-hsun Chen by John Pinkerton

The American Go E-Journal‘s special coverage of the World Amateur Go Championships (WAGC) begins with tomorrow’s edition. Each morning’s edition will include our reports through midday local time in Hangzhou, China; click here anytime for the latest live news, posted as it happens by the EJ/Ranka Online team. The daily WAGC E-Journals will also include special game commentaries usually only included in the Member’s Edition, provided as part of our support for world go. We hope you enjoy our complete coverage of the 31st annual competition among top amateur players from around the world, which runs through May 31. The weekly E-Journal will resume next week.– Chris Garlock; photo: WAGC players warm up Monday morning; photo by John Pinkerton

If you have any doubt about whether go is alive and well in the land where it was invented, show up on a Sunday night at the Tongzhou Middle School in Shanghai. Night has fallen and the streets are quiet, but the school is a beehive of activity. More than eighty kids are gathered in four classrooms, excitedly shouting out answers as their teachers lay out go problems on demonstration boards. The youngsters, ranging in age from four to twelve or so, sit — when they’re not leaping up to try their move — at special classroom desks stencilled with go boards; the plastic go bowls swing out from beneath the desktop. The school, which currently has more than 300 students, is run by the Tongzhou Go Association and was founded in 1998 by Qin You Min, a go-loving amateur 5-dan businessman who’s also on Shanghai’s team of strong amateurs. Most of the students at Tongzhou are from local primary schools, and indeed Qin learned to play when he himself was in primary school. “Go is an important part of traditional Chinese culture and once I learned, I just could not give it up,” he said with a smile and a shrug. When the principal of the Tongzhou Middle School asked him to start up the go school there, “I could not say no.” Like many an American school, trophy cases — in this case for go championships — line the wall in Tongzhou’s front lobby. Unlike the privately-run Blue Elephant School, Tongzhou is part of the official China go sports system and its team participates in national go tournaments. “A good teacher is the secret of good training,” Qin. Liu Yi Yi 2P is the team’s main coach, and other pros often come to teach as well as the three full-time teachers and seven part-timers. In just twelve years, the school has already generated four professionals, Qin tells me proudly. The team trains daily, with cultural lessons in the morning and then go lessons in the afternoon and evening. Tonight’s classes are levels 2 through 5. The Level 2 kids — who teacher Bai Yi Ping has to lift onto a chair to reach the demo board — are 8 kyu and are learning to count liberties. In adjoining rooms a Level 3 class of 7 kyus is reviewing capturing races, a Level 4 group of 4 kyus is reviewing their games and a Level 5 class of 1 kyus is studying life and death problems. The energy in the school is vibrant, with the kids both focussed and having fun. In the Level 4 class, for example, the kids are working intently together to replay and record their games, while in the next room the tiny Level 2 students are literally jumping up and down in their seats to be chosen to solve the problem on the board. “Play more games with Chinese players,” Qin says when I ask his advice for how American players can improve.– Chris Garlock; photos by John Pinkerton

Catalin Taranu 7d defeated Cristian Pop 7d in an exciting Balkan Go Championship 4th-round game that led to Taranu’s sweep of the May 19-23 event. Pop was second at 5-1 and Cornel Burzo 6d took third. Burzo did take first in the Blitz event, with Mihai Serban 4d second and Pop third. In the Pair Go event, Serban and Laura Avram 2d went 4-0 and captured first place. The tournament took place just outside of Bucharest, Romania.– EuroGoTV

Hwang In-Seong 8d went 5-0 to take top honors at the 13th Madrid Go Tournament, held May 15-16. Lluis Oh 6d was second with four wins, while Mao Feng 4d came in third at 3-2, including a surprising upset of Li Yue 5d. Hwang is currently third in the European Go Federation rankings. 63 players took part in the tournament.– EuroGoTV

Thomas Debarre 5d (r) won the French Youth Championship, held May 8-9 in Cachan, France. Debarre — who will represent France in this week’s World Amateur Go Championships in Hangzhou, China — edged out three other players with only one loss in the under-18 group. Debarre lost to Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia 4d, who lost to Paul Bivas 3d, who lost to Debarre. David Horowitz 1d came in second, while Dréan-Guénaïzia and Bivas came in third and fourth. In the under-15 group, Tanguy Le Calvé 1d took first for the second year in a row, Florian Melcer 2d was second, and Osmin Lacombe 1k finished third. For the youngest, under-12, group, Hector de Framond 14k took his first title after coming in second last year, Guillaume Ougier 20k, and Anais Khenniche 17k were second and third.– EuroGoTV

The Go Consultants documents a unique event in go history, Kitani Minoru and Go Seigen’s 1934-35 consultation game against their teachers Suzuki Tamejiro and Segoe Kensaku. Authors John Fairbairn and T Mark Hall provide fly-on-the-wall observations of what each side was thinking at every stage of the contest, doing an excellent job of describing the characters and putting their status into context for 21st-century readers. In fact the story is related so naturally that The Go Consultants reads like a hard-to-put-down novel, complete with amusing anecdotes as well as keen commentary on the actual progress of the game. It’s like a show-within-a-show. On top of the pure entertainment value of the story, I found it insightful to learn how professional players approach serious games and a relief to discover that even professionals can be taken by surprise. I have always appreciated tightly-decided games more than landslides, because they tend to exemplify the ideal of ‘balanced play’, and without giving away the ending, this game was very closely fought indeed. Whether you’re a novice historian or an obsessive student of go, you won’t find a more thorough deconstruction of a professional game-in-progress. As a bonus, the book includes the players’ own post-mortem analyses. $18 from Slate & Shell– adapted from Tyler Reynolds’ Go For All blog

Eleven out of fourteen of you guessed that it was go writer John Fairbairn who came to dinner recently. For those who do not know, his name does in fact “rhyme” with “bair” sounding the same as “fair.” John has translated many books for Ishi press and is the quieter half of the GoGoD team. Recently his books from Slate and Shell have been receiving high and well-deserved praise. He attended several Orioles games during his recent visit — and even saw them win! — as well as a Phillies game and a Nationals game. Here we are pictured on our excursion to Frederick to watch a game by the Orioles single-A farm club, the Frederick Keys. I really enjoyed spending time with John, and look forward to a long and ironic friendship between an English American baseball fan and an American English football fan.
Sadly, the Go Quiz has run its course. Participation is down this year and the response received does not justify the time and space involved. I really want to thank everyone who participated and everyone who enjoyed the Quiz and I hope some of you learned something and maybe your interest in go was increased in some fashion. Final Standings: Phil Waldron 11/13, Grant Kerr 9/10, Kim Salomony 9/11, Scott Pederson 8/8 and Lin Nei 7/8. Many thanks to Phil Waldron, who never missed a quiz, Grant Kerr, who only got one wrong and my biggest fan Kim Salomony. Finally, a special thanks to an old friend, one-time rival, and one-time Congress ride buddy who easily wins the all-time award for most wrong answers. You too are namelessly appreciated.– Keith Arnold

The American Go E-Journal will publish special daily editions this week live from the World Amateur Go Championships (WAGC) in Hangzhou, China. We’re teaming up again with Ranka Online this year to provide complete coverage of the 31st annual competition among top amateur players from around the world, which will run May 24-31. American-born pro Michael Redmond 9P will provide game commentaries for the Ranka/E-Journal effort – which will include ongoing updates on both Ranka and the AGA website , as well as via the daily E-Journal reports — while Ivan Vigano, James Davies and Chris Garlock will report and John Pinkerton will provide photos.– Chris Garlock; photo: WAGC players warm up Monday morning; photo by John Pinkerton